American Indians Los Angeles

Beneath the busy streets of the City of Angels lies a labyrinthine network of 270 tunnels, most of which, though now fenced shut, were dedicated to the safe street crossings of horses and people. Other passageways, some much older and all now abandoned, burrow under UCLA, a Bel-Air estate and El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park near Olvera Street--a tunnel rumored to have been used by Chinese residents to escape the notorious Chinese Massacre of 1871.

He was called the "richest Indian in America," but his tastes didn't run to polo or champagne. Rather, Jackson Barnett's interests were--quite literally--pedestrian. Before and during the Depression, Barnett was one of Los Angeles' living landmarks, standing day after day on the northeast corner of Rossmore Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard--always impeccably dressed in a three-piece suit and always doing the same thing: directing traffic.

A dwindling Native American tribe clinging to its culture and two adoptive parents clinging to their children faced off Tuesday in a Monterey Park courtroom in an emotional child custody hearing that promises to become a touch point for debate over adoption, Indian sovereignty and children's rights.

A state appellate court has raised serious questions about the constitutionality of a federal law designed to help Native Americans preserve their families and tribes--a ruling that will temporarily allow a white Ohio couple to keep custody of twin 20-month-old girls. This week's order by the 2nd District Court of Appeal thrilled adoptive parents Jim and Colette Rost of Columbus, Ohio, and cast a pall over the birth family, which lives in Long Beach.

A Native American tribe has joined a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles challenging its authority to grant development permits on an Encino property that the tribe claims is an Indian burial ground. The Fernandeno have become co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed on May 5, by a developer who said he lost money when the city allowed the project to go forward even though it knew, according to the lawsuit, that the project would probably be halted.

A local Native American tribe suffered a legal setback this week in its efforts to protect what its members say is a burial ground. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Tuesday refused to grant the Fernandeno request for an order that would have barred Los Angeles from allowing excavation of an Encino property where the tribe claims its ancestors are buried.